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Message Notes

Rebuilding: Guarding Your Future

Pastor Phil Burdoin
July 25, 2021

“In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.” 
Nehemiah 9:38

“Moreover, we will bring to the storerooms of the house of our God, to the priests, the first of our ground meal, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees and of our new wine and olive oil. And we will bring a tithe of our crops to the Levites, for it is the Levites who collect the tithes in all the towns where we work. A priest descended from Aaron is to accompany the Levites when they receive the tithes, and the Levites are to bring a tenth of the tithes up to the house of our God, to the storerooms of the treasury. The people of Israel, including the Levites, are to bring their contributions of grain, new wine and olive oil to the storerooms, where the articles for the sanctuary and for the ministering priests, the gatekeepers and the musicians are also kept. “We will not neglect the house of our God. 
Nehemiah 10:28-39

Nehemiah points the people in the right direction.
  • The people write out the promise
  • The people recite the oath out loud
  • The people get specific about the promise they are making

But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense. 
Nehemiah 13:6-9

Direction, not intention, determines destination.
 
Get AND stay connected to Jesus:
  • Read and make scripture central to your life
  • Form (or join) a small group
  • Stay accountable to someone close to you

Small Groups Talk About It

Watch the Message Summary:

  1. .Share about a time when you ended up in a place or situation you never intended to be in.
  2. .Have you ever heard the expression “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Discuss what it means and examples of it.
  3. Read Nehemiah 10:28-29:  Who does it say took the oath? What does it say there were promising to do?
  4. What do you think was the reason for them to be willing to make such a serious oath to God? What were the people trying to prevent?
  5. Share a time when you made a promise you couldn’t keep?  Why did you make the promise? Did you have the intention of keeping the promise when you made it?
  6. Read Nehemiah 10:35-39:  Do you believe the people had the intention of keeping all these promises?
  7. Read Nehemiah 13:6-9: From these verses we learn that they people did not keep their promise.  Why did they fail? (see bottom line)
  8. Regardless of how good our intentions are, we need to learn how to stay headed in the right direction. This can only be done by staying connected to Jesus.  How will you stay connected to Jesus?
  9. List the three ways from the sermon that you can stay connected to Jesus.  Will you commit to doing those? List three additional ways.  Will you commit to doing those as well?

Bottom Line: Direction, not intention, determines destination.